Curriculum Vitae

Click here to download Kai Ni’s CV

Kai Ni
EECS department, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235
kai.ni@vanderbilt.edu
(615) 512-2740

EDUCATION

Vanderbilt University
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering                                                                     07/2013 – 10/2016 (expected)
Dissertation: Radiation effects in III-V MOSFETs for logic applications
GPA: 3.9/4.0

Vanderbilt University                                                                            08/2011 – 07/2013
M. S. in Electrical Engineering (Physics Minor)
Thesis: A fully embedded integrated silicon-on-insulator total-ionizing-dose monitor
GPA: 4.0/4.0

University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)         08/2007 – 06/2011
B. S. in Electrical Engineering
Area: RF/Microwave engineering
GPA: 90.1/100   Rank: 4/153

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Solid state physics and devices
• Analog/RF/microwave IC design, VLSI, antenna design
• Reliability and radiation effects in microelectronics
• Quantum computation and information

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant, Radiation Effect & Reliability Group,      01/2012 – present
Vanderbilt University, United States
Solid state physics and devices

• Physics and reliability of III-V MOSFETs for logic applications
  • Bias temperature stability and total-ionizing-dose effect for InGaAs quantum-well MOSFETs
  • Broadbeam heavy ion irradiation and femtosecond two-photon-absorption (TPA) laser irradiation in InGaAs quantum-well MOSFETs
  • Broadbeam heavy ion irradiation and TPA laser irradiation in GaAs surface-channel MOSFETs
  • Charge collection study on InGaAs FinFET devices through TPA laser irradiation and heavy ion irradiation
• ZnO nanowire Resistive RAM (RRAM)
  • Fabrication of the ZnO nanowire RRAM
  • Characterization and analysis of the memory devices
• Carbon-based nanoelectronics
  • Operation principles of the diamond-based vacuum field emission devices
  • Modeling of nanodiamond field emission diode

TCAD simulation of semiconductor devices

• Calibration of III-V material properties, calibration of III-V MOSFETs with experimental data, and simulations of charge collection process
• Reverse leakage current simulations in SiC power schotty diode
• Single event effects simulations in 20 nm 3D planar nMOSFETs and 16 nm FinFET

Monte Carlo simulation of semiconductor devices

• Transport simulation of InGaAs quantum-well MOSFETs
• Simulation of impact ionization induced breakdown of a diode

SOI mixed-signal IC design measuring dose for space application

• Current controlled oscillator design with high linearity and wide input range using double relaxation capacitor topology
• Wide bandwidth voltage comparator design
• Bandgap voltage reference design
• Whole chip layout design

Research intern, Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center (IMEC), Belgium         07/2015 – 11/2015
TCAD simulation on electrical effects of a single extended defect in transistors

• Calibration of the dislocation parameters with experimental data and development of TCAD simulation setup for dislocation
• Simulation of dislocation in planar and FinFET devices

Research intern, Microsemi Corporation, CA, United States                08/2014 – 11/2014
Single event upset (SEU) simualtion

• Characterization of the FPGA SRAM cell SEU sensitivity by mixed mode TCAD simulation
• SEU error cross-section calculation and error rate calculation

SONOS nonvolatile memory

• Characterization of the SONOS nonvolatile memory device
• X-ray irradiation of the SONOS device, characterization, and analysis

Research Assistant, Applied Electromagnetics Group, USTC, China                     06/2009 – 06/2011
MMIC design

• Coupled microstrip-line based bandpass filter design
• Four-terminal power divider design
• Power amplifier design

Antenna design and measurement

• Investigation and application of fractal geometry into the Yagi-Uda antenna
• Measurement and characterization of horn antenna parameters

Computational electromagnetics

• Programming based on moment of method (MoM) to solve the current distrubtion and impedance matrix of the Koch fractal antenna and the Sierpinski fractal patch antenna

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Programming: C (since 2007), Python (since 2011), MATLAB (since 2007), Assembly Language (since 2007), VHDL (since 2008)
• CAD Tool: HFSS (since 2010), ADS (since 2010), IE3D (since 2010), Cadence (since 2011)
• TCAD simulation: Sentaurus TCAD (since 2011), Silvaco TCAD (since 2011), DAMOCLES (since 2013)
• Scanning Electron Microscope (since 2013), Electron Beam Lithography (since 2013)
• Characterization: Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer (since 2012), RF/Microwave Measurement by Vector Network Analyzer (since 2015), Impedance Analyzer (since 2013), High Speed Oscilloscope (since 2013), Low Frequency Noise Measurement (since 2013), Femtosecond Laser Testing (since 2013)

PUBLICATIONS

1. K. Ni, E. X. Zhang, R. D. Schrimpf, D. M. Fleetwood, R. A. Reed, M. L. Alles, J. Lin, and J. A. del Alamo, “Gate bias and geometry dependence of total-ionizing-dose effects in InGaAs quantum-well MOSFETs,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., (pending submission)
2. K. Ni, G. Eneman, E. Simoen, A. Mocuta, N. Collaert, A. Thean, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, and D. M. Fleetwood, “Electrical effects of a single extended defect in MOSFETs,” (submitted to IEEE Trans. Electron Devices)
3. K. Ni, E. X. Zhang, I. K. Samsel, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, A. L. Sternberg, M. W. McCurdy, S. Ren, T. P. Ma, L. Dong, J. Y. Zhang, and P. D. Ye, “Charge collection mechanisms in GaAs MOSFETs,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2752-2759, Dec. 2015
4. K. Ni, E. X. Zhang, N. C. Hooten, W. G. Bennett, M. W. McCurdy, A. L. Sternberg, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, M. L. Alles, T. W. Kim, J. Lin, and J. A. del Alamo, “Single event transient response of InGaAs MOSFETs,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 61, pp. 3550-3556, Dec. 2014
5. H. Zhang, H. Jiang, T. R. Assis, S. Ball, K. Ni, J. S. Kauppila, R. D. Schrimpf, L. W. Massengill, B. L. Bhuva, B. Narasimham, S. Hatami, A. Anvar, A. Lin, and J. K. Wang, “Temperature dependence of soft-error-rates for FF designs in 20-nm bulk planar and 16-nm bulk FinFET technologies,” IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (submitted)
6. Y. S. Puzyrev, X. Shen, K. Ni, C. X. Zhang, J. Hachtel, B. Choi, M. F. Chisholm, D. M. Fleetwood, R. D. Schrimpf, and S. T. Pantelides, “Memristive switching of self-assembled ZnO nanorods,” J. Appl. Phys. (pending submission)
7. S. Ren, H. Wu, R. Jiang, M. Bhuiyan, K. Ni, J. Chen, E. X. Zhang, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, P. D. Ye and T. P. Ma, “Total ionizing dose effects in ultra-thin body Ge on insulator (GOI) junctionless CMOSFETs with recessed source/drain and channel,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., (pending submission)
8. S. Ren, M. Bhuiyan, J. Zhang, M. Si, R. Jiang, K. Ni, X. Wan, S. Chang, E. X. Zhang, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, P. D. Ye, and T. P. Ma, “Total ionizing dose effects in GaAs MOSFETs with La based epitaxial gate dielectrics,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., (pending submission)
9. C. Claeys, E. Simoen, G. Eneman, K. Ni, A. Hikavyy, R. Loo, S. Gupta, C. Merckling, A. Alian, and M. Caymax, “Review-device assessment of electrically active defects in high-mobility materials,” ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol. Vol. 5, pp. 3149-3165, 2016
10. T. R. Assis, K. Ni, J. S. Kauppila, B. L. Bhuva, R. D. Schrimpf, L. W. Massengill, S. J. Wen, R. Wong, and C. Slayman, “Estimation of single-event induced collected charge for multiple transistors using analytical expressions,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2853-2859, Dec. 2015
11. S. Ren, M. W. Si, K. Ni, X. Wan, J. Chen, S. Chang, X. Sun, E. X. Zhang, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, P. D. Ye, S. Cui, and T. P. Ma, “Total ionizing dose effect in extremely scaled ultra-thin channel nanowire gate all around InGaAs MOSFETs,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2888-2893, Dec. 2015
12. I. K. Samsel, E. X. Zhang, A. L. Sternberg, K. Ni, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, M. L. Alles, R. D. Schrimpf, D. Linten, J. Mitard, L. Witters, and N. Collaert, “Charge collection mechanisms of Ge-channel bulk pMOSFETs,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2725-2731, Dec. 2015
13. B. Narasimham, S. Hatami, A. Anvar, D. M. Harris, A. Lin, J. K. Wang, I. Chatterjee, K. Ni, B. L. Bhuva, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, and M. W. McCurdy, “Bias dependence of single-event upsets in 16nm FinFET D-flip-flops,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2578-2584, Dec. 2015
14. E. X. Zhang, I. K. Samsel, N. C. Hooten, W. G. Bennett, E. D. Funkhouser, K. Ni, D. R. Ball, M. W. McCurdy, D. M. Fleetwood, R. A. Reed, M. L. Alles, R. D. Schrimpf, D. Linten, and J. Mitard, “Heavy-Ion and Laser Induced Charge Collection in SiGe Channel pMOSFETs,” IEEE, Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 61, pp. 3187-3192, Dec. 2014

PRESENTATIONS

1. K. Ni, G. Eneman, E. Simoen, A. Mocuta, N. Collaert, A. Thean, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, and D. M. Fleetwood, “Electrical effects of a single extended defect in MOSFETs,” IMEC Program Technical Week, Leuven, Belgium, Oct. 2015
2. K. Ni, E. X. Zhang, I. K. Samsel, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, A. L. Sternberg, M. W. McCurdy, S. Ren, T. P. Ma, L. Dong, J. Y. Zhang, and P. D. Ye, “Charge collection mechanisms in GaAs MOSFETs,” IEEE Nuclear Science and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Boston, MA, July 2015
3. K. Ni, E. X. Zhang, N. C. Hooten, W. G. Bennett, M. W. McCurdy, A. L. Sternberg, R. D. Schrimpf, R. A. Reed, D. M. Fleetwood, M. L. Alles, T. W. Kim, J. Lin, and J. A. del Alamo, “Single event transient response of InGaAs MOSFETs,” IEEE Nuclear Science and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 2014
4. I. K. Samsel, E. X. Zhang, K. Ni, R. A. Reed, R. D. Schrimpf, D. M. Fleetwood, R. A. Weller, M. W. McCurdy, and M. L. Alles, “Physical mechanisms for radiation-induced effects in non-silicon channel CMOS devices,” GOMACTech, St. Louis, Mo, March 2015 (best poster award)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt

Teaching assistant on electromagnetics                                                                             Fall 2011
Guest lecture on solid state devices (graduate level)                                                  Spring 2016

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Membership

• IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS)
• IEEE Electron Devices Society

HONORS AND AWARDS

• Best poster award in the 40th GOMACTech Conference                                       2015
• Vanderbilt tuition scholarship and research assistantship                    2012-present
• USTC excellent graduated students scholarship                                                     2011
• USTC outstanding student scholarship                                                                     2010
• Chinese academy of science institute of microsystem and information technology scholarship                                                                                                                      2009
• USTC outstanding student scholarship                                                                    2008
• USTC outstanding student scholarship for freshmen                                            2007